When you take out the new flashy designs and features of cars today, you will notice that nothing revolutionary have been introduced. What may be seen as innovative lately are the use of hybrid engines that combine gas and electric power to run cars and save up on fossil fuel. You can also add GPS navigation that helped make travel easier and convenient for some people. But aside from those, nothing else revolutionary has changed.

But car manufacturers are still striving to develop more revolutionary cars in the coming years. The next expected innovations may include cars that can run on auto-pilot. Japanese car maker Toyota has said that it may be introducing such cars hopefully in five years time. They start it off by announcing recently the development of two new safety features, the Automated Highway Driving Assist and Pedestrian-avoidance Steer Assist.

The Automated Highway Driving Assist system will allow vehicles to communicate with each other wirelessly to avoid bumping into each other and to keep the car running in the middle road lane no matter how many turns it makes during its journey. The Pedestrian-avoidance Steer Assist system meanwhile helps the next generation cars to avoid pedestrians who may be in the vehicle’s path. It will make use of sensors to detect any obstacle or pedestrian on the vehicle’s immediate path. It if detects one, the system will alert the driver using visual and audible warnings. If the driver fails to take immediate action, the car system will trigger automated braking and even steer the vehicle to clear the pedestrian in its path and avoid collision.

Toyota and other rival automakers have been working with Google for several years now in order to develop the next generation of self-driving and assisted-driving cars. On Toyota’s end, the new systems may become part of the next generation of such cars. The Japanese car manufacturer estimates that these systems may be available in selected car models in as early as five years from now.Technology News – GuideTo.Com